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These are the first paintings you have exhibited, why did you decide to explore this medium?

It has always been on my mind to start painting again as it is what I originally studied. While I love drawing and its simplicity, I felt that developing a painting practice alongside it would enrich and push my art practice further. My drawing process can be very slow, and while I do enjoy the meditative quality that comes with it, I have found that painting opens up more possibilities of expression, particularly when it comes to the scale of the work. Even though I developed quite a precise process in painting too, it’s does allow me to create bigger pieces much quicker.

I find working in pencil to be a very tactile process, where I am following the shape of the subject stroke by stroke, creating an almost artificial surface of it. That specific surface pattern that I create in drawing is one of my main focus points within the medium, while I find painting to be more about the overall mood of the piece. Through experimenting with colours and layering to achieve different effects in lighting and texture, I was able to find a way to create that specific atmosphere in my paintings that was essential for communicating the context of the work. Its physical presence in the space, defined by the scale and the rich red and purple palette, has a very different physical effect on the viewer than drawing does, which is something I am very interested in too.

Working in painting is also teaching me to let go of full control in my work. Contrary to drawing, paint often does its own thing, and I feel I can never fully predict what the finished piece is going to look like. That is definitely something I am still adjusting to...

L: Aiste Stancikaite with 'Void', oil and acrylic on canvas

R: 'Exposed', oil and acrylic on canvas

'Between Us', oil and acrylics on canvas

How did the theme of loneliness come about, what’s behind the work?

The exhibition is titled "We Were Always Alone”, which is an attempt to get to the heart of the never-ending incompleteness that goes along with being human. I always felt that while it is our nature to seek connection with others, and we have the need to be seen and understood, deep down there is always a strange, quiet sense of loneliness and longing. We do inhabit our bodies and minds alone, and I think it is never possible to fully know another person, or yourself. I don’t see this negatively though, I think there is beauty in it. I feel like my work has always had a certain melancholic undertone to it, but in this body of work I felt drawn to explore this state of being human further, and the vulnerability, desire, yearning for connection that is intertwined with it.

L: Aiste's studio, featuring 'Undone', oil and acrylic on canvas

R: 'Yearning', oil and acrylic on canvas

What has been your biggest successes in creating the work, what are you most proud of?

I would say that my biggest success in creating the work is that I found a way to express myself in painting that feels like an organic continuation to drawing. Now I can create work in both mediums and they connect, complement and expand each other. It has been a really challenging process to get comfortable and find my voice in painting in quite a limited amount of time. Having a deadline for the exhibition helped me maintain my focus, and I am very proud that I persisted and kept on going, even though sometimes I was really tempted to give up. It has been a hard but invaluable experience, and I feel like I have really grown as an artist.

Have there been any challenges along the way?

Finding my visual language in painting was definitely my main challenge. I felt really comfortable in drawing, so when I started painting, it felt like I had to start at the very beginning. Painting is much more technically challenging and complicated than drawing, so I was failing every day for months until, it seemed, I tried every possible way to make an image on canvas. Finally, I found something that I could work with, which was the turning point. In a way, feeling too comfortable in drawing is also why I wanted to expand into painting. I feel like now I can approach my drawing practice with new eyes too.

'Absent', oil and acrylic on canvas

Do you have a favourite piece?

My favourite is the laughing piece, titled Void. I love how people see it so differently, and how ambiguous it is. Since it is a very enlarged close up of a mouth, it is balancing between something very figurative and very abstract, it could almost be a landscape. I feel like this piece holds a lot of emotional depth and while it definitely suggests a story, it’s also open enough to direct that story your own way.

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About Aistė Stancikaitė

Aistė is a mixed media artist whose work often pairs intricate pencil and coloured pencil with other traditional or digital mediums. She creates images with a focus on detail and texture, as well as a balance between abstract and figurative, and has worked for fashion, design and media clients including Apple, Variety, Stylist and Forbes amongst others.

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